the twelve days of Christmas (Intramuralist style)

There’s only so many days left. It’s December 13th as we first post this… in other words, only a dozen or less shopping days.

Hence, it’s time for “The Twelve Days of Christmas”… Intramuralist style, why of course.

(Granted, we’ll spare you the gleefully incessant refrains… although for pure enjoyment reasons, we do encourage the below singing along… if in private, that is… it’s just more fun that way…)

(So starting with day 12… really… please sing.)

* * * * *

On the twelfth day of Christmas, my neighbor sent to me…

Twelve unbiased news outlets

Eleven objective reporters

Ten honest spokesmen

Nine wise college presidents

Eight always kind colleagues

Seven in no lies ever-a-swimming

Six truths a-laying

A calm, 2024…

Four calls for common sense

Three moral men

Two good candidates

and

A respectful day of productive dialogue.

* * * * *

’Tis the season…

Respectfully… absolutely always…

“… And now, the question is: How much damage has Biden done under the auspices of protecting his son? Presidential acts are permission slips. It’s not quite what Richard Nixon said — ‘When the president does it, that means that it is not illegal’ — but it’s close. Once a president has done something unprecedented, it means there’s a precedent. And once one president tries something and gets away with it, I promise you, a future one will try something similar. Well, welcome to a new precedent. The president has now overturned a jury of fellow American citizens, not some kangaroo court, who convicted his son. And he cleared him of not just the charges he has faced, but of any future charges he could face from anything he may have done over a 10-year period from 2014 (when Hunter first tried to do business in Ukraine) to now. Experts told Politico that the breadth of the pardon was unlike anything except Gerald Ford’s controversial pardon of Nixon after his resignation.

That aspect will also set a precedent. Who knows whether Donald Trump grants pardons before he leaves office that read almost identically to the Hunter Biden pardon — but that he makes the dates June 15, 2015 (the day he rode down the escalator), to Jan. 20, 2029, his last day in office? Whatever the chances are, they have surely gone up. More importantly, Biden has now borrowed Trump’s rhetoric to describe what he views as Hunter’s experience with the justice system. What kind of precedent will we have set if both parties accept the premise that whoever’s elected is going to politically prosecute his or her opponents? It’s part of Biden’s rationale for the pardon. And it will surely be Trump’s rationale for future pardons.

What’s the general public supposed to think of the justice system now? The leading Republican in the country (Trump) and the leading Democrat in the country (Biden) have both claimed the system is unjust because of politics. Explain to me who’s got the high ground now on this issue. At this point, does it even matter who started us down this road, if everyone believes in the same conclusion? This is where I’m tempted to say, ‘Welcome to Thunderdome,’ because a “Mad Max” reference feels relevant right now, though also a bit too doom and gloom even for my cynical taste.”

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22	23	24	25	26	27	28
29	30	31